Reflections: Indigenous women have always been strong

Maria Campbell | March 29, 2017

Miswayta iskwew kisikah anooch. My written Cree leaves
something to be desired, but hello all you Eagle Feather people. I hope you all
had a Happy Woman’s Day celebrating your kohkoms, mama’s, sisters and cousins,
as well as all the amazing women in our communities and country. On days like
today I feel so blessed and fortunate not just as an Indigenous person but also
in my personal life. If it were not for these women I am afraid to think of
where we all would be and how different our lives might have been.

Recently in doing some research I came across an
article that quoted a Jesuit missionary who, in the mid 1700’s, wrote, “these women (Indigenous women) have entirely
to much power and authority. ” Well
thank goodness for that because when we look at the history of Indigenous
peoples since contact, it has been that power and authority that has been our
strength and it was certainly not from a lack of trying to destroy it by those
missionaries and the men who came to plunder our land and take our resources.

I never grew up hearing that Indigenous women had
power and authority, so I do thank that
long ago Jesuit for recording that. I also never heard praise heaped on women,
I don’t even remember anyone ever saying
‘thank you to our moms or our aunties and nohkoms for all the work they
did to keep family and community healthy and strong. Our nohkom’s did midwifery
and looked after the dying, they picked and dried medicines to doctor their
families as well as the neighbor’s, who often came to them for help. Our mom’s
hauled barrels of water from nearby gravel pits, sloughs and lakes to wash
their clothes on a scrub board. In the winter they hauled bags of snow and
melted it on the stove. They canned hundreds of jars of vegetables from the big
gardens they tended all summer and the wild berries they picked on the
land. They tanned hides for the nohkom’s
who were to old to do it for themselves but who could sit and sew all the beautiful
beaded moccasins and jackets that were sold to summer tourists for money that
supplemented the grocery bills and paid for school clothes and all of the extra
things that were needed to keep us to survive.

They hooked rag rugs and did embroidery, which they
sold to neighboring farmers and to town people. And on top of all that they
held all kinds of socials and dances to raise money for the meetings that were
held to bring changes in education, in health and in trying to secure land for
our people. They were the force behind
changes to the Indian Act, the organizing to fight for land claims, to protest
logging and mining, which would destroy their children’s inheritance. They
fought for language preservation, changes to the educational system and to make
it possible for their children to go to universities. They went to universities themselves, got
degrees and struggled to make changes within the academy and they continue
still to do that work every single day.

They became
lawyers and doctors, historians and dentists. Teachers and nurses. They organized and
continue to lead demonstrations to bring justice for their people. They publish
books, do beautiful art, produce films and documentaries, they write poetry and
sing songs celebrating their people. They make quilts, do beading workshops,
baby-sit grandchildren and stand strong to protect the water.

There is not one single thing that has benefited our
people throughout our history and continues to benefit them that does not have
the imprint of a strong woman or women.
Yeah Sophie Gregoire Trudeau can hold the hand of her very privileged,
powerful husband and tell Canadian women to celebrate their men and son’s on
International Women’s Day but sorry Sohpie as much as I love my sons and
brothers, it is the women in my family and community that I celebrate on this
one very special day. These women are
the strength of our people. They are the revolutionaries and the revolution!